Editorial + High Fashion Model. Creative Director.

You Can't Feel Fat

You can't. Fat is not a feeling. Fat is on your body. Fat is a descriptor used for body shapes. You can't feel fat.

Ashley Graham thinks that she feels fat occasionally. Do you know what the consequences of her saying this are? Let me explain.

1. She gives the green light for diet culture talk. "Feeling fat" is diet culture at its finest. The word someone wants to use is "gross," "unsexy," "bloated," "unattractive," or any of the synonyms of the previous. When we allow "fat" to replace these words tied directly to being unattractive and unworthy, we allow diet culture to fester and grow.

2. She brings body positivity down to diet culture's level. Now, Ashley's version of body positivity is bogus bullshit. However, it is the mainstream version of the social movement. Body positivity has little to nothing to do with the appearance of one's body, and/or how "healthy" one's physical vessel is. When she uses diet culture phrases in interviews and captions, she is watering down body positivity down to nothing and commandeering it for diet culture's use. Thus, furthering the reach of diet culture in our society by including words like "healthy" in attempts to camouflage it.

3. She is a role model and icon for fat people. I'm sorry, but how are you going to be a role model for fat people when you don't like being fat, and/or are saying fat is gross? Bye, Ashley. You can't sit with us. I have a lot of issues with Ashley as a fat icon and role model for women. Most of them revolve around the fact that she says one thing but does the opposite. (It's a thing of hers.) Like, when she says how you should embrace your body and cellulite but has lost multiple sizes (she is closer to a ten these days rather than her "size 16" body she has once claimed to have), and continuously posts gym routines and herself happy while getting rid of "unwanted" weight. Am I the only one who almost threw the phone when I saw her posting her "pre-show" workout before her Addition Elle show because she had to "tone"? Are you fucking kidding me? She might as well captioned it "I HATE MY BODY WITHOUT PHOTOSHOP AND FEEL THE NEED TO WORK ON PLACES I HATE AND I'M TELLING YOU THAT IF YOU WANT TO BE NAKED/SEMI-NAKED YOU HAVE TO TONE AND GET RID OF BAD FAT."